Tuesday, December 22, 2009

so this is Christ-mas

my mother has the gift of hospitality and it shows.

i think i have it too. she has taught me a lot and i try to be like her. it pleases both of us to open our homes, to bake for others, to cook for others, to serve others. we find great joy in allowing people to relax and enjoy themselves. so it's not hard to see that this time of year we kind of blossom.

we bake. we meal plan. we have people over. we share.

but that is not Christmas.

Christmas is not the perfect gift. it's not the cookies or the trees. Christmas is not opening stockings or slicing the turkey. Christmas is not even about giving or family.

Christmas is the day Jesus was born.

God Incarnate left His throne and became a man, just like us.

and this is the day which was set aside in remembrance of that incident, that birth.

but we've lost sight of that.

this entire season has become engrossed in marketing and consumerism, and it's getting pretty ugly out there.

and what they're trying to accomplish. or maybe you go to a church that has become involved. and i think it's a worthy cause myself.

but as i said before, i don't even think Christmas is about giving.

it's just about Christ.

i came across this video today and it resounded within me. let's pick up our bibles and get back to the basics. read john or luke with new eyes and ears. don't be bothered with chapter and verse. think of luke trying to share everything he remembers about the time he spent with Jesus.

think of him just bubbling over trying to spill it all. the joy of realizing who Christ was. the awe of His coming. the conditions surrounding His birth. the humility of being scorned as His follower. the despair of His death. and the joy everlasting when you find

He rose again!

please take the time to watch this and consider how we might change how we celebrate this season starting in our own homes.

3 comments:

thanks for writing this, sistre. we need to focus on Christ this season. Jesus truly is the reason for the season. He became a man so that He could live and die to be the sacrifice for our sins that we could never ever pay on our own.

Pastor Steve preached a really good sermon on it last week from Hebrews here

Great post. And I couldn't agree more- Giving gifts can be sweet, loving, & hospitable. It can also be wasteful. But either way- presents are not what Christmas is about. We have all our gifts, all that we need, already- in Him.